(Newser)
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The British government has extended the inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann amid reports that investigators are searching for one final person of interest in the case. Detectives are searching for an individual who was in the same area of Portugal when the 3-year-old girl who went missing from her family's vacation apartment nearly 10 years ago, the Sunday Express reports. The lead was good enough to prompt the Home Office to commit another $104,000 to the investigation that has so far cost UK taxpayers $13.5 million, per the BBC. Four British investigators, down from 29, remain on the case since Scotland Yard set up its own inquiry independent of Portuguese police in 2011. The latest funding will extend the probe known as Operation Grange until September.

International intelligence agencies have been working to find the person who could hold a key to solving the case, per the Express. Parents Kate and Gerry McCann would not comment on any leads police may be chasing, but a spokesman tells the Telegraph they were "extremely grateful" for the additional funding. "They have never given up hope of finding out what happened to Madeleine, and still believe she could be alive," a source tells the paper. Since her disappearance in May 2007, scores of theories have emerged about what happened to Madeleine, who would be nearly 14 today. (Mom Kate McCann believes Madeleine never left Portugal.)